Notebook Review: Reecovid Notepad

'recycled, not virgin'

-  reecovid (recovered) notepads, great for emergencies!

Sometime in June, I received a comment on my blog from a lady in the United Kingdom, Ingrid Savill, asking me if I am willing to write a review of one of their notepads. Hm. A notepad? Great! A month later, I received my reecovid (recovered) notepad, the first paper product made from 100% post consumer waste to join my growing collection.   

Ingrid sent me a Natalie notepad, and I just love the cover design! I love the green, blue and purple floral, mandala-like design. Natalie is one of the six beautifully-designed refillable A5 notepads of reecovid. The cover design of these notepads is based on the female symbol evolving into a flower, and all six notepads are named after environmentally-conscious women. It also has an elastic strap like most notebooks, but what keeps reecovid's elastic strap different from the rest is that it is a genuine bra strap and it has a unique bra strap adjuster! Love it! :)

The reecovid logo is printed on the lower left part of the cover, near the spine.

On the upper part of the cover, near the spine, is the company's slogan, 'Waste, Not Chaste.' This became their slogan after the 'Recycled, Not Virgin' thing.

The notepad opens to such a simple, but elegantly-designed inside cover page printed with the word 'notepad' at the center of the page and the reecovid logo at the bottom. 

A closer look at the inside cover page.

At the back of the inside cover page is where one can write her name in beautiful calligraphy. :) (But of course, that's just me.)

The paper used in reecovid notepads are 100% recycled, white, uncoated paper. And this raised my curiosity: can recycled paper stand up to fountain pen inks?

As a fountain pen user, pen and ink tests is a must for each and every paper product I get. In the photo above, it is quite obvious that I used a lot of pens. I used my calligraphy pens, and also most of my beloved Schneiders, Sheaffers, Walitys, and Parkers.

This photo shows the calligraphy pens I used to test reecovid's paper. From the top, beginning with the title: Lamy Vista with 1.1mm cursive italic nib inked with J. Herbin Rouille D'Ancre; Lamy Joy with 1.5mm cursive italic nib inked with Diamine Chocolate; Schenider Creativ pens with J. Herbin Poussiére de Lune; Rotring ArtPen with 1.5 crisp italic nib inked with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage; Osmiroid 65 with a B2 nib inked with Diamine Woodland Green; and Sheaffer NoNonsense with a fine italic nib inked with Diamine Burnt Sienna.

Here are the round nibs and their inks: Schneider Base pens with J. Herbin Rouge Opera, Diamine Turquoise and  Aurora Blue; Lamy Safari with J. Herbin Diabolo Menthé; Sheaffer NoNonsense pens with Caran d'Ache Saffron, Waterman Purple and Inoxcrom Blue; Sheaffer Statesman with Waterman Havana Brown; Sheaffer TipDip with Cross Blue; Thein with Private Reserve Copper Burst; Sheaffer CP with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage; Wality pens with Lamy Black, Lamy Blue and Woodland Green; and Inoxcrom pen with J. Herbin Poussiére de Lune.

Here are more round nibs. Parkers on parade: Rialto with Mont Blanc Bordeaux, Jotter with Diamine Royal Blue, 25 with Penman Ruby, 45 with Diamine Majestic Blue and 51 Special with Aurora Blue. Watermans: Kultur with Diamine Poppy Red and Phileas with MB Bordeaux. Haolilai with Diamine Orange, Pilot 78G and Rotring 600 with Iroshizuku Kiri-same.

That's a lot of pen and ink combinations! And the verdict? See photo below:

No feathering on almost all the inks used, but Kiri-same bled badly. Notice the bleed at the bottom of the page. But that's fine.

Now here are some more macro shots of several ink colors on reecovid paper:

Both photos above are written with the Sheaffer NN with a fine italic pen. Fantastic!

Now here is Lamy and Diamine. Chocolatey. :)

But wait, there's more! Here is ORANGE.

GREEN.

And BLUES.

I couldn't resist taking a photo (and posting it) of the back cover. So here it is. :)

reecovid notepads are excellent products. Here are the other features of these gorgeous notepads: 

• refillable hard cover binder with biodegradable laminate;
• 2DD rings metal mechanism for use with a standard hole punch;
• 216 pages of 100% recycled, white, uncoated paper;
• ruled lines; and
• available in A5 size

Despite all these, I still wish this notepad had a pocket somewhere. And a page marker. But, I love this product from reecovid. And I will use it because it's an excellent product. (Hint: I love the fact that the paper can take most of my fountain pen inks.)

reecovid notepads are available for online purchase through their website at http://www.reecovid.co.uk/. They are also on Facebook (reecovid) and Twitter (reecovid), so updates come faster if we 'like' and 'follow' them.